"Today, Foreign Minister Moratinos, has announced that Spain will behave diplomatically as if The PA was the government of The Palestinian State, its mission in Madrid being given diplomatic status of an Embassy as well as The consulate in East Jerusalem, that from today will be a Spanish Embassy.

He will encourage others to follow in preparation for the coming declaration of independence."

France and Spain are laying the political groundwork for the European Union to recognize a Palestinian state — possibly as early as October 2011 — even if negotiations for a permanent settlement between Israel and the Palestinian Authority are not concluded.

The initiative is being spearheaded by French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner and his Spanish counterpart Miguel Ãngel Moratinos, whose country currently holds the six-month rotating presidency of the European Union.

Palestinian Authority leaders Mahmoud Abbas and Salam Fayyad have repeatedly said they intend to unilaterally declare Palestinian independence before the end of 2011, with or without a peace deal. Abbas and Fayyad have been visiting European capitals in recent months to drum up political and financial support for Palestinian statehood. Kouchner and Moratinos laid out their vision for Europe’s role in creating a Palestinian state in a recent opinion article titled “A Palestinian State: When?” The article, which was published in French by the center-left newspaper Le Monde, reminds readers that the European Union is the biggest single provider of financial aid to the Palestinians. Often described as a “payer but not a player” in the Middle East, the authors argue that the European Union must work more aggressively in bringing about Palestinian statehood.

Complete Story at above link.

By the end of August, they and the US would -- if somebody else announced it. Now Voice of America and theJTA both report that the EU says such a move is premature.

The European Union has followed the United States in saying it is not ready to recognize Palestinian statehood, after Palestinian leaders declared they would seek that status at the United Nations.

Speaking to reporters in Brussels, Foreign Minister Carl Bildt of Sweden, which holds the rotating European Union presidency, said the time is not right for recognizing a Palestinian state.

"I do not think we are there yet," he said. "I would hope that we would be in a position to recognize a Palestinian state, but there has to be one first. So I think that is somewhat premature. We have said previously if you go back to what the European Union has said that we would be in a position to recognize a Palestinian state, but the conditions are not there as of yet."

PARIS, Dec 7 (KUNA) -- Despite past indications that France could do so if Middle East talks stalled, French officials said Tuesday that they "did not want to anticipate discussions between the parties" and they would not recognize an independent Palestinian state within the 1967 borders at this time.Foreign Ministry spokesman Bernard Valero noted that the principle of a Palestinian state had been agreed by the European Union in Berlin in 1999."Within this perspective, we want a resumption of peace talks, which must address all questions; the final status, the setting out of the parameters of a Palestinian state and allow for its creation. We want a viable Palestinian state, which means with 1967 borders, with exchanges of territory." Valero was reacting to a KUNA question on France's position on Palestinian statehood after three Latin American countries said they were going ahead and recognizing Palestine as a state.Israel has strongly protested the move Monday by Brazil, Argentina and Uruguay, which said they will recognize the Palestinian state within its 1967 borders, an area under Palestinian control before Israel occupied large tracts of Arab land and also Jerusalem over 40 years ago."We support the construction of this future state and the setting up of its institutions," Valero said of plans to establish a Palestinian nation once the stalled and ailing peace talks are concluded.The French official noted that to bolster its support for the emerging Palestinian state, France has upgraded the diplomatic ranking of the Palestinian representative in France and the "delegation" had been upgraded to a "mission" with a full ambassador who handed in his credentials to President Nicolas Sarkozy last week.This, however, is far from what was hinted at several times by former Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner before he left office last month, when he had said France would seriously consider unilateral recognition of Palestine if the peace process did not make progress and obliquely, it was hinted, if Israel did not halt illegal settlement-building.

The Palestinians have been recently intensifying their efforts to attract the international recognition of an independent Palestinian state on the territories occupied by Israel in 1967 and have managed to gain the recognition of Brazil and Argentina.

The latest activity was Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas' request from Turkey to recognize the Palestinian state. Palestinian officials expect that more Latin American countries, such as Uruguay and Peru as well as some European countries will soon make their declaration of recognizing the future Palestinian state.

Local analysts believe that the recognition would give power and confidence to the Palestinians amid the stalled peace process, while some politicians and analysts think that won't change the reality.

[snip]

The international recognition of a Palestinian state has made the Palestinian politicians more optimistic, however, the well- known Palestinian opposition leader and academic Abdul Sattar Qassem said that the recognition is "something that won't change reality or the balance of powers."

"Our problems are not just to make diplomatic achievements. Our major problem is related to the international balance of powers. As long as Israel is strong and we are weak, nothing will change even if 100 countries recognize the Palestinian state," Qassem told Xinhua.

Complete Story at above link.

My friend Corporanon says France won't do it. I don't see why all the posturing, but... I hope he is wrong for once...

The United States on Tuesday opposed moves by Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay to recognize an independent Palestinian state, saying such recognition is "counter-productive" to achieving Middle East peace.

"We don't think that we should be distracted from the fact that the only way to resolve the core issues within the process is through direct negotiations," State Department spokesman Philip Crowley said.

"That remains our focus. And we do not favor that course of action. As we've said many, many times... any unilateral action, we believe, is counterproductive," he added.